UPDATE 1-Recovery of South Sudan oil output to take time -official

(Adds status of plans to restart production in Unity state)

By Carl Odera

JUBA, March 19 (Reuters) - South Sudan's oil production is
steady at about 160,000 barrels per day and will take time to
recover to previous levels, an oil ministry official said, after
oil facilities in Unity state were burned in fighting between
political factions.

Production on Monday was 162,000 bpd from fields in Upper
Nile state, said the oil ministry official who asked not to be
identified. That level, little changed from the start of the
year, is down about a third from the 245,000 bpd recorded before
the conflict flared up in mid-December.

Oil facilities in Unity state have been shut since
supporters of President Salva Kiir fought defectors who backed
his sacked deputy, Riek Machar.

"They set the facility ablaze. It will take long to
restart," the official said.

Oil companies evacuated Unity state after some local oil
workers were killed in the fighting as the defectors captured
the capital Bentiu. Government forces have since recaptured the
town.

The firms have yet to resume operations, however, while the
government strives to ensure security and to assess the damage,
according to a senior official at a foreign oil company.

"Right now the efforts to restart Unity production are going
on, but until now the report (on the extent of the damage) is
not finished. The paperwork to resume until now is not finished;
there is no change there in security," the senior official said.

"They (the government) don't control all the oil fields
there, so we hope this can change. But now it remains just a
hope because with technical people, without security nobody will
go there."

Sporadic battles have been fought since a ceasefire deal was
reached on Jan. 23, with some of the fiercest fighting in
Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state. But production from
the Upper Nile fields has held steady.

Upper Nile fields produce Dar blend crude, which is a heavy
and sour blend. The lighter and sweeter Nile blend produced from
the Unity fields tends to sell at a premium to Dar.

The two blends usually go to Chinese and Indian refiners,
which can process a variety of crudes. Some Nile blend is also
shipped to Japan where it is burned by utilities.

Any variation in production of South Sudan's crudes can
impact the price of some other grades such as Indonesian,
Angolan and some Australian crudes.

Oil firms in South Sudan, a country roughly the size of
France, include China National Petroleum Corp,
India's ONGC Videsh and Malaysia's Petronas
.

All of South Sudan's exports run via a pipeline through
Sudan to the Red Sea. South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011, and
the two nations have often argued since then over oil transit
fees, border security and other issues.
(Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Singapore;
Writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Drazen Jorgic and Jane
Baird)